6.270 2000 Rules Committee Rulings

The following are questions and responses from the 6.270 Rules Committee. Please send all rules committee questions to 6.270-rules@mit.edu.

If a robot is not connected by legos, it is disqualified. If a robot is
connected, it is okay... but what if the opponent breaks the connecting
pieces to make it two pieces... does that disqualify the robot?

If another robot manages to break your robot into two pieces, then that's
ok. However, if you designed your robot to break apart easily, in such a
way that a slight tap by the other robot breaks your robot, or your robot
breaks apart while running by itself very easily, then that's not allowed.

What all are we allowed to spend our $20 on? Would things like motors,
speakers, lights, and what not be ok?

Section 1.9.2 of your course notes addresses this issue. You cannot buy
motor driver circuity, microprocessors, relays, etc. If you do buy and use
something, you have to document it as in section 1.9.2.3.

OKay, here's something that I thought of. We are planning on having
a big heavy arm in front and I'm worried about it getting caught by
the other robot. Is it possible to make it detachable once it can't
be moved so our robot can still move or that's against the rules. I
am hoping it will be okay because we will not drop it
intenstionally.

In this scenario, your robot is intentionally dropping its arm. This
is not allowed. In short, you may not build your robot in a way such
that a part is prone to become detached, or a piece is actively
released and detached.

May I glue pieces of rubberbands to tank treads? What about just applying glue to the treads?

Yes, for both, but must be for traction purposes only.

May I attach a piece of foam to the front of my robot to act as a shock absorber?

No, that would be considered a strucural component, only lego can be used for structural purposes.

I need a clarification on the definition of possession. Suppose your robot
forms a maze around a block. Do you possess the block because moving in any
one direction in the plane doesn't allow the block to escape, or is it free
since some sequence of robot movements allows the block to escape? As an
example:

--------------
| ________ |
| |
| |
| |
|B|
---

This block would NOT be in possession.

Also, what if a block is mutually supported by the 2 robots in such a way
that neither robot alone would be supporting the block?

In this case, neither robot has possession of the block.

Can we buy motors (not circuitry but the actual motor) with the twenty dollars?

You can buy ordinary motors (you are forbidden to buy motor driver
circuitry) with the $20 budget. However, I have to warn you that buying
other motors and driving them with the controller board may damage the
controller board. Please do so at your own risk! The 6.270 rules
committee and the other organizers strongly suggest you stay with the
polaroid motors we supply you. They are already very powerful and compact.

What modifications can we not do to the LEGO baseplate? Specifically,
can we adhere pieces of it on to itself.(to the back where there are no
LEGOs). Can we adhere other LEGO to it. ( I heard that in previous years
this was okay).

You can do just about anything to the lego base plate (even melt it down,
and mold a completely new piece of lego). However, the base plate is still
a piece of lego, so you have to attach it as so. You may not use
adhesives, but can use either the lego knubs or axles through punched holes.

As part of our 60 second calibration, can we request that the other robot
be placed in a certain position on the table with its IR beacon running, and
if so is our opponent expected to honor our request?

You could probably ask, but the other team has absolutely no obligation
to do so. This would take up some of their calibration time, so we
recommend that you don't follow through with this routine.

Since we have a nifty little metal hook in our kits, if robot A uses the
hook to latch onto robot B, does robot A then also possess everything that
robot B possesses? Does this depend on which robot, if either, is able to
push and pull the other robot?

Two robots stuck together are not in possession of each other (whether it
be by the hook or by wires entangling each other).

Does losing the qualifying round count as a loss in the double elimination
contest? If not, what does count?

Yes, a loss in the qualifying round counts as a loss in the double
elimination. However, if you don't succeed in qualifying, your
subsequent attemps at qualifying do not count as additional wins/losses.

Can we put something such as a lego sword into the lego man's hand?

"You may add any amount of decoration to your robot so long as it
is not structural, and serves no purpose aside from asthetics"

You mention subsequent attempts at qualifying. Could you please explain the
rules of the qualifying round a bit more - we were under the impression that
each robot only gets one chance to qualify.

After Round I, robots that do not qualify are given 2 additional chances to qualify in lab. These two attempts are done against a placebo and take place between Round I and impounding.

If we have a structural plate in our robot, may we punch a hole in it
to allow wires running to the sensors to be routed internally? (Note: The
holes do not improve structural support. ;-)

OK

May we add glue in combination with the existing rubber treads to
further increase drive traction?